THERMAL, Calif. — Acura’s new NSX – 25 years in gestation – might be as much psychological experiment as supercar. Oh, pundits will trumpet its 573 hybridized horsepower and, individually, enthusiasts with deep pockets will have to decide whether Acura’s New Sports eXperience — no that’s not a grammatical error — is more enticing than Ferrari’s newly-turbocharged 488 or Lamborghini’s screaming Huracan.

But the deeper question the new 2017 NSX poses — just as its fondly remembered predecessor did — is whether a supercar should appeal to the left side or the right side of the corpus callosum. In less clinical terms, is the best way to loot the wealthy aficionado’s wallet by engaging their brain or appealing to their heartstrings? Or, more importantly, if you’re an Acura salesperson, can you sell a $189,900 — $250,100 if you add in all the carbon fibre goodies — supercar based on pragmatic performance?

2017 Acura NSXHandout /
Acura

The original NSX made a compelling argument for yes. Before 1990, the formula for supercar relevance was always the same. If the right hemisphere — controlling emotion, visual imagery and, political-correctness be damned, sexual impulse — engaged, the purse strings loosened. Mid-engine Ferraris — up until the surprisingly pragmatic 488 at least — were perfect examples of the triumph of passion over common sense. Even something as modern as the recently-departed 458 could have been commissioned by the great man himself, Enzo never letting ratiocination stand in the way of internal combustion theatrics.

The original NSX flipped that formula on its ear. Though shaped like a supercar — indeed more comely than most of the era — the 1990 NSX could have been designed by Albert Einstein, so ruthless was its logic. Power — 270 horses — was adequate but not scintillating. The V6 — a measly V6 in a supercar! — was neither double cammed nor turbocharged. Even the tires — the fronts an impossibly narrow 205/50ZR15, so tiny they could have been “emergency” spares for a Countach — were definitely “less” than supercar-ish.

The original NSX meets the new second-gen 2017 Acura NSXDavid Booth /
Driving

And yet, it all worked like no supercar before. Indeed, the NSX was so pure of engineering, so devoid of the foibles of traditional exotica, that it lasted, largely unchanged, for 15 years, an extraordinary run for any production automobile, an eon for a supercar. When the last one did roll off the production line in 2005, a cult was born, one that still recruits to this day, to worship the quintessentially rational supercar.

Twenty-five years later, the NSX remains the sensible supercar. Oh, the new-for-2017 successor boasts more than twice as much horsepower — the NSX’s traditional V6 gains two turbochargers and no less than three electric motors — and the tires are finally super-sized — especially in the rear with its meaty, Lamborghini-like 305/30ZR20 Pirelli PZero Trofeos. But, you don’t have too scratch deep to find that Acura still Crafts its Performance very Precisely.

2017 Acura NSXDavid Booth /
Driving

Take the new NSX’s Launch Control system, for instance. Any supercar worth its turbochargers these days sports some sort of autonomous clutch and throttle control to boast a quick sprint to 100 km/h. Typically, there’s much sound and fury, computers and actuators maximizing engine rpm and barely contained tire squeal.

Not in the NSX. Those three electric motors I mentioned pump out 217 pound-feet of torque even before the gas engine starts up, something Acura calls “torque filling.” So, unlike other Launch Control systems I’ve tested that rev the snot out of their gas engines before (computer-controlled) dumping of clutch, the NSX comes out of the hole with the V6 spinning a barely off-idle 1,800 rpm. There’s no roar of engine, no squealing of rubber. In fact, there’s no drama at all. Your grandmother wouldn’t notice you just peeled out. Hell, you could Launch Control an NSX in front of a cop shop and there’d be no mad rush for manacle or baton. And yet, the NSX will spring to a 100 km/h in about 3.1 seconds.

2017 Acura NSXHandout /
Acura

That same ruthless application of engineering applies when the road deviates from the straight and narrow. With four motors — one gas and, again, three electric — all computer controlled, the permutations and combinations of how Acura’s Super Handling All Wheel Drive system decides what wheel gets what torque seem positively endless, the NSX taking torque vectoring — the ability to distribute power to each tire — to new levels. Enter a corner hot and heavy, for instance, and Direct Yaw Control uses the hybrid regenerative braking system to slow the inside front wheel more than the outer tire to “pivot” the NSX towards the apex. Exiting the corner, the process reverses, all attention on the outside front tire — with all the traction! — 54 pound-feet of electric torque “pulling” the NSX out of the corner.

And, how about this. The NSX is the first supercar with nine-speeds — yes, nine! — in its dual-clutch gearbox, its paddle-operated upshifts so smooth and crisp that, other than the digital tach’s dropping of revs, gear changes snick-snick all but imperceptibly. Still, the paddle-changers are all but redundant: The quick way around the racetrack, NSX-style, is to let the gearbox control things, its automatic mode deciding when to upshift, when to downshift and even when the throttle should be blipped far more adroitly than you ever could.

If all that sounds a little too antiseptic, it feels anything but behind the wheel. There may be, for instance, “only” 573 horsepower on tap — 88 less than Ferrari’s 488 GTB — but you can engage every one of them exiting even the tightest of hairpins. And just because all those electric motors are torque vectoring up front doesn’t mean you can’t play wag the tail with the rear. Flip the mode selector to Track — or shut off the traction nannies altogether if you’re so brave — and the NSX will slew sideways in eerily controlled drifts. The difference is that, because those electric motors have your back, there’s less chance of the rear wheels swapping places with the front.

2017 Acura NSXHandout /
Acura

And just because that nine-speed DCT is shifting automatically doesn’t mean matting the throttle is any less entertaining. The NSX may sport but six pistons, but like the original VTEC-ed V6, each sings a compelling aria. Even the twin turbochargers, usually an impediment to aural delight, prove no impediment. Indeed, while the NSX can’t begin to compare with the Wagnerian rasp that was Ferrari’s 458, its soundtrack is no less compelling than the 488, now also turbocharged.

And unlike the Ferrari, if you get tired of all the cacophony, you can engage the NSX’s “quiet” mode, which, at low speeds, sees the gas engine turned off and the front electric motors — yes, at low speeds the NSX is a front-wheel-drive supercar — silently moving things along. All in all, the NSX brings a level of sophistication to the supercar that even the most expensive exotics can’t emulate.

But — and there always has to be one of those, doesn’t there — the gap is not nearly as large as when the original NSX plied its trade. Ferraris are no longer troublesome, Lamborghinis are an exercise in frustration no more and McLaren is all but as innovative as Acura. Japan no longer has a monopoly on the meeting of logic and lust, the gap between reason and emotion narrower than ever before. That psychic question I pondered may not be as important as it was in 1990.